Adventure - Kayaking with True North Kayak Tours

Kayaks on the beach

Stats

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate                                                                               Time:  half-day

Summary

Every May, the Homer Chamber of Commerce hosts the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.  The festival celebrates the passage of huge numbers of migratory birds through Kachemak Bay.  It lasts 3 days and is jam-packed with bird-watching, hikes, talks, kayaking, and boat tours.  One of the activities we chose to do was a kayaking trip with True North Kayak.

Opinion

This trip was a lot of fun.  The price is surprisingly reasonable and

Winter Adventure - Arctic Circle Tour with Ronn Murray Aurora Tours

Aurora around the moon

Stats

Difficulty: Moderate                                                                                   Time:  Full-Day

Summary

This is a “bucket list” trip of a lifetime!

Ronn Murray and his wife Marketa run Aurora Tours out of Fairbanks, AK.  We chose to go all out and took their Arctic Circle Tour on 10 Mar 2014; this was the next to last of these

Adventure - Fishing with Dan Donich Charter – Full-Day Halibut Trip

Chris' 35 lb halibut ready to break the surface.

Stats

Difficulty: Easy - Moderate                                                                      Time:  Full-Day

Summary

I love halibut, but we don’t own a boat.   We decided to go on a fishing charter on 11 Sep on the hope of filling the freezer.  This time we chose Dan Donich (Daniel's Personalized Guide Service).  He was recommended by an acquaintance.  This was our second charter in 2013.  We went out on the Irish in late Aug (see Halibut Fishing with North Country Charters) and came home with 15.8 lbs of halibut filets, but we wanted more.

Opinion

Great trip!  My husband and I caught our limit (so did everyone else on the boat) and came home with 54.1 lbs of halibut filets

Adventure - Halibut Fishing with North Country Charters

The Take

Stats

Difficulty: Easy - Moderate                                                                      Time:  Half-Day

Summary

I love halibut, but we don’t own a boat.   So we decided to try halibut fishing.  For our first trip, we decided to try North Country Charters.  They were offering a ½ day halibut-fishing trip on 20 Aug that suited our needs.

Opinion

Good trip!  WIth day old or worst halibut running $21 to $25 per pound we decided to fill

Adventure - 4-Wheeling with Alaska Wilderness 4-Wheeler Tours in the Kenai Backcountry

Kachemak Bay Glaciers Seen from Kenai Backcountry

Stats

Difficulty: Easy - Moderate                          Distance: 15 mi                                 Time:  6 hrs+

Summary

Dan Eidem runs Alaska Wilderness 4-Wheeler Tours, a tour on ATVs, for small to medium groups.  An earlier post described our trip with him in May down the beach from Bishop’s Beach in Homer (AW4WT - On the Beach).  This time we took his more usual route, into the Kenai Peninsula backcountry.  This area includes meadows filled with Fireweed, spruce forests, sweeping vistas and views of glaciers and volcanoes.

Opinion

This trip was a blast!  We went several miles

Adventure - Blueberry Picking at the Peterson Research Station

Sunset at Peterson Research Station

Stats

When: Early – Mid August                         Where: Peterson Research Station

Summary

Alaska seems to be the US capitol for berries.  More berries grow in this state than I’ve ever heard of anywhere else.  We’ve got blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, salmon berries, watermelon berries, elderberries, currant, marionberries, cranberries, lingonberries (low bush cranberry), nagoonberries, crow berries, serviceberries, and strawberries.  Most of these grow wild, but several cultivars are grown in home yards and farms as well.  Truly, I didn’t know half these berries existed until I moved here.

On 11 Aug 2013 our neighbors asked if we wanted to take a boat ride across Kachemak Bay to go blueberry picking at the Peterson Research Station.  The Peterson Research Station belongs to the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies based out of Homer.  The station is situated on 5 acres of wild land and coastline and their lower trails go through extensive blueberry fields, with a mix of currant and salmonberry randomly distributed throughout.  The berries are fair game to visitors, although they ask that you leave a few for the bears.

Opinion

This was a blast.  We picked berries for about 2 hours and came home with 7.5 lbs (22.5 cups)

Adventure - 4-Wheeling with Alaska Wilderness 4-Wheeler Tours - Riding On the Beach at Homer

Sea and Sky on the Beach

Stats

Difficulty: Easy                                                                                       Time:  Half-Day +

Summary

Dan Eidem runs Alaska Wilderness 4-Wheeler Tours, an tour on ATVs, for small to medium groups.  He usually tours the Homer backcountry, but when we joined him on 26 May 2013, the backcountry was still deep in snow and mud.  So he took us to his alternate site, the beach starting at Bishop’s Beach.

Opinion

This trip was a blast!  We were hoping to see

Adventure - Boat Tour of the Portage Glacier on the MV Ptarmigan

Portage Glacier Cruise

Portage Glacier from the MV Ptarmigan

Stats

Difficulty: very calm water                                                                     Time:  approximately 1 hr

Summary

We chose took the Portage Glacier Cruise on the MV Ptarmigan on 29 Jul 2013 (Portage Glacier Cruises).  This is the only motorized boat authorized on Portage Glacier Lake.  The boat cruises the short distance from the docks to the glacier for a spectacular, close-up view of the Portage Glacier.  A Chugach National Park ranger narrates the trip.

Opinion

This is a great trip.  The price is surprisingly reasonable and

Hiking - Grewingk Glacier Lake and Saddle Trail (Summer)

Grewingk Glacier and Lake

Stats

Distance:  4.5 miles                   Difficulty: Easy / Moderate                                 Time:  5 hrs

Summary

On 8 Jun 2013, the Kachemak Bay State Park had its annual “Trails Day”.  The purpose of trails day is to clean and repair the many managed trails in the park.  In addition to the maintenance hike, the state park also sponsors a guided family hike to Grewingk Glacier.  The hike started with a boat ride to the beach to take the Glacier Lake Trail to the glacier, the returned to the bay via the Saddle Trail.  

Since the start and end points are not the same, this particular route requires someone with a boat to drop you off and pick you up; if you don’t have a convenient friend with a boat, you can take one of the Water Taxis operated out of Homer.  This particular hike, as part of Trails Day, was sponsored and supported by Mako Water Taxi.

We did this hike before we started this blog, so we don’t have GPS maps of the route we took.  You can find good trail maps at the web site above.  We will upload a GPS track of the route the next time we take this hike.

Opinion

This is one of our favorite full day hikes; it is well worth the water taxi fee.  We also recommend planning a nice picnic lunch at the glacier.  The Glacier Lake Trail